Racial mix of jail staff boosted

London jails once plagued with racism and brutality have been transformed with a dramatic increase in ethnic minority staff.

At Brixton, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubbs about one in four staff is black or Asian according to the Prison Service. It has comfortably beaten targets set by ministers to improve the racial mix of its prison warders.

Last December the Commission for Racial Equality published a report on Brixton and two other prisons, following a three-year probe. It found the service guilty on 17 counts of unlawful discrimination.

Brixton governor John Podmore has been credited with reforming the jail since taking over in

2002. Across seven London prisons, ethnic minority staffing has leapt from 13 per cent to 22 per cent in only five years.